Only the Green Party commits to Makerfield public ownership pledges

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  • Post last modified:17 June 2026
Only the Green Party commits to Makerfield public ownership pledges

Only the Green Party has responded to a Makerfield public ownership pledge launched today, explaining which local public services they would take back if elected. Andy Burnham has not clarified his position, despite his critique of privatisation in recent weeks. Campaign group We Own It asked the six main Makerfield candidates for their positions on public ownership of water, energy and buses, as well as a local BlackRock deal with Greater Manchester Pension Fund to buy up GP surgeries. Nearly 10,000 emails have been sent to the candidates over the weekend to put pressure on them to reveal their policies. This…

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Badenoch delivers sad speech attacking public sector equality duty

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  • Post last modified:9 June 2026
Badenoch delivers sad speech attacking public sector equality duty

Kemi Badenoch has announced her intention to “repeal the public sector equality duty in its entirety”. The PSED, or simply “the duty”, requires public sector leaders to abide by equality considerations set out in the 2010 Equality Act. Principally, this means working to prevent discrimination against people with protected characteristics (race, sex, disability etc), and monitoring the outcomes of that work. The news comes just a week after Nigel Farage weaponised the tragic murder of Henry Nowak as an excuse to attack diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Vickrum Digwa, a British Asian man, stabbed Nowak, then told police he had…

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Australia: Public inquiry overdue for secretive, expensive AUKUS pact

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  • Post last modified:9 June 2026
Australia: Public inquiry overdue for secretive, expensive AUKUS pact

The AUKUS war pact between the US, UK and Australia is expensive, secretive, and the “worst defence decision” since WWII. That’s according to a respected Australian expert, who says a proper inquiry is long overdue. Ian Lowe, an emeritus professor at Griffith University, Queensland, published a recent critique of the deal, saying it was: Negotiated rapidly and in secret [and that] the AUKUS pact to produce new nuclear-powered submarines is among the most expensive, consequential and opaque deals in British and Australian military history. Australia probes shadowy defence deal Australians are holding a public inquiry, a move that Lowe welcomes. The scholar…

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Private consultancy firms rake in big GB Energy public money

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  • Post last modified:8 June 2026
Private consultancy firms rake in big GB Energy public money

New-ish GB Energy has wasted no time siphoning off public money to private companies. Scottish paper the National has revealed that up to £20m of taxpayer money is going straight to consultancy firms. GB Energy: corporate capture Under energy secretary Ed Miliband’s guidance, London-based firms Deloitte and Baringa Partners are gaining lucrative contracts. They’re to handle day-to-day operations of Labour’s flagship — supposedly publicly-owned — corporation GB Energy. The National has revealed that these contracts, signed on 1 May, awarded the two firms a shared programme — worth up to £10m each — in which they will: be responsible for “organisational set…

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